Opportunity to Prioritise Saving Lives Lost
Following last week's meeting of the European Council, the Jesuit Refugee Service International has issued a press release criticising the EU for failing yet again to prioritise saving the lives of people fleeing conflict and persecution.
EU leaders have not taken the necessary steps to ensure safe and legal access for vulnerable forced migrants.
JRS sincerely hopes the European Council decision to increase resources to Frontex will lead to improved 'search and rescue' of forced migrants crossing the Mediterranean but fears the consequences of the raft of measures designed to prevent forced migrants from gaining access to the protection they are so desperately seeking.
Hundreds of thousands of forced migrants are faced with little option other than taking extremely dangerous journeys such as those across the Mediterranean. The overwhelming focus on combating smuggling ignores the fact that the vast majority of the people coming through this route are seeking protection. Preventing their arrival into North Africa will not protect them. Our focus should be protecting people, not borders, said JRS International Director, Peter Balleis SJ.
Forced migrants need safe access to protection. Suggestions of increasing voluntary resettlement quotas among EU states are welcome but it is worrying that no concrete number has been mentioned in the final statement. According to the UN refugee agency, there are currently one million refugees in need of resettlement. Yet the annual quota in industrialised nations is less than 80,000 a year.
Peter Balleis SJ added: Measures designed to keep people in countries of transit outside the EU will not stop them from moving on in search of meaningful protection. We need substantial increases in the use of resettlement, family reunification, humanitarian visas and the temporary lifting of visa requirements if we are to stem the illegal smuggling. It is the lack of protection and access to regular migration channels which fuels smuggling.
